Tag Archive for: #hendersoncitycouncil

Chamber Of Commerce Sends Letter To Mayor, Council Members

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The Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors has sent a letter to the mayor and City Council members asking that local elected officials conduct meetings in a positive, constructive manner.

Chamber Board President Scott Burwell signed the letter, as well as Beth Townsend and Kevin Wade, co-chairs of the Chamber’s Government & Public Affairs Committee.

The letter was cc’d to City Attorney Hassan T. Kingsberry, Chamber President Sandra Wilkerson and members of the Chamber board.

The letter is dated July 1, and reads as follows:

Dear Mayor and City Council Members:

I hope this message finds you well. The Henderson-Vance County Chamber of Commerce represents the interests of the business community in matters that affect the ability of local businesses to prosper and grow, and the ability of Henderson and Vance County to attract new businesses.  I am writing to respectfully encourage you, local elected officials, to conduct open meetings and business-related meetings in a manner that promotes productive dialogue, economic growth, and positive business relations.

Effective governance relies not only on policy but also on the tone and conduct of those in public service. When decision-making is rooted in civility, collaboration, and strategic thinking, it fosters a stable environment where businesses can plan, invest, and grow with confidence. In contrast, divisiveness and unproductive behavior can undermine investor confidence, stall progress, and weaken our region’s economic competitiveness.

Our local business community—small and large enterprises alike—looks to leadership for consistency, transparency, and a commitment to creating a supportive economic environment. On behalf of the Chamber member businesses, the Henderson-Vance County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors urges you to continue championing policies and practices that strengthen partnerships, encourage innovation, and attract long-term investment.

Thank you for your service and dedication to our community. I appreciate your consideration of this request and look forward to seeing continued leadership that reflects the values and priorities of the business community you represent.

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TownTalk: Henderson City Council July Meeting, Investigations Coming

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The Henderson City Council met Monday night for its regular monthly meeting to conduct routine city business but then went into closed session to discuss a personnel matter.

Mayor Melissa Elliott said she would entertain a motion to go into closed session.

The Council did vote to adjourn into closed session, which had not been included on the agenda that was sent to the press and posted on the city’s webpage.

Upon returning to open session, it was learned that Mayor pro tem Garry Daeke and Councilperson Geraldine Champion will work together to be the liaisons for separate, independent, third-party investigations that will be taking place into two matters: one involving employee surveys pertaining to the mayor and a second that involves accusations made against the manager.

The Council voted unanimously to make Daeke the liaison between the council and the two independent, third-party investigating entities that will look into the matters.

Champion requested that all information that is learned during the investigation be shared with the entire council, to which Daeke replied that would certainly be the case.

The procedure of discussion and voting got a bit complicated when Elliott suggested that Champion join Daeke as a liaison, but that suggestion did turn into what happened.

It’s unclear whether there was an addendum to the original motion or whether a secondary motion was made to include Champion as a liaison. Nevertheless, the vote was 6-2, with Council members Lamont Noel and Sam Seifert voting against the motion.

No further details were discussed about who will conduct the investigations, when they will commence, how long they should take or when results will be available.

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No Doubt About It: Council Votes To Formally Adopt FY 2025-26 Budget At Special Called Meeting Monday

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The Henderson City Council took just a few minutes Monday to formally adopt the FY 2025-26 budget during a special called meeting that took place at 12 noon in Council chambers.

City Manager/City Attorney Hassan T. Kingsberry introduced the budget and Council Member Tami Walker made a motion – seconded by Council Member Garry Daeke – to approve.

Council Members Geraldine Champion, Sam Seifert, Michael Venable, Daeke and Walker voted yes.

Council Members Sara Coffey, Lamont Noel and Ola Thorpe-Cooper were not present for the meeting.

The budget adoption had been on the agenda at the June 9 regular monthly meeting, but there was some confusion about whether the council actually took a vote to formally adopt the $54 million budget.

Mayor Melissa Elliott remarked at the special called meeting that she didn’t request an addendum to the budget when she called for the vote at last week’s meeting.

That confusion was cleared up by the vote taken during the special called meeting.

The budget must be approved before July 1, when the new fiscal year begins.

Henderson City Council Special Called Meeting Set For Monday To Formally Adopt FY 2025-26 Budget

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Update 6-16-25 at 1 p.m.

The Henderson City Council took just a few minutes Monday to formally adopt the FY 2025-26 budget during a special called meeting that took place at 12 noon in Council chambers.

City Manager/City Attorney Hassan T. Kingsberry introduced the budget and Council Member Tami Walker made a motion – seconded by Council Member Garry Daeke – to approve.

Council Members Geraldine Champion, Sam Seifert, Michael Venable, Daeke and Walker voted yes.

Council Members Sara Coffey, Lamont Noel and Ola Thorpe-Cooper were not present for the meeting.

The budget adoption had been on the agenda at the June 9 regular monthly meeting, but there was some confusion about whether the council actually took a vote to formally adopt the $54 million budget.

Mayor Melissa Elliott remarked at the special called meeting that she didn’t request an addendum to the budget when she called for the vote at last week’s meeting.

That confusion was cleared up by the vote taken during the special called meeting.

The budget must be approved before July 1, when the new fiscal year begins.

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Depending on whom you ask, the Henderson City Council voted Monday to adopt the 2025-26 budget.

But because of the uncertainty and confusion generated since that meeting, a special called meeting has been scheduled for 12 noon on Monday, June 16 to make official the formal adoption of the $54 million budget.

Information about the special called meeting comes from City Clerk Tracey Kimbrell. The meeting will take place at City Hall in City Council Chambers, 134 Rose Ave.

“On Monday night, the Henderson City Council technically voted on CAF 25-45, Ordinance 25-16, (Adoption of the FY26 Budget).   A correction sheet (labeled “CAF 25-45, Ordinance 25-16 water and sewer adjustments) regarding water and sewer rate adjustments was given to Council members prior to the meeting on Monday because calculations were incomplete at the time the agenda was distributed, preventing updates to the Schedule of Fees in the Budget Ordinance (25-16),” according to information Thursday afternoon from the clerk.

In a follow-up question from WIZS News Tuesday evening about whether the budget had been voted on, City Manager/City Attorney Hassan Kingsberry said it had been, when the council voted to increase a line item in the budget about McGregor Hall.

Whichever of these two votes was intended to adopt the budget, it’s apparently been decided by virtue of the upcoming special called meeting that neither one of the votes on Monday night was formal enough.

According to information in the agenda packet, the Council was to consider CAF 25-45 – adoption of the FY 26 annual budget.

Otherwise, as the information below indicates, the process leading up to the vote had been very productive despite some difficulties with data loss and the need to adjust the water and sewer rates. Information from the agenda packet reads as follows:

“CAF 25-45 Adoption of the FY 26 Annual Budget

“Requested by: Finance Director Joey Fuqua

“Explanation: On 12 May 2025 the FY 25-26, a balanced Recommended Budget was presented to the City Council followed by two budget work sessions on 19 May and 20 May and a public hearing on 22 May. After all reviews, answered questions and discussions, the City Council reached a consensus on accepting the FY 25-26 budget as presented. Submitted herewith, the City of Henderson FY 25-26 annual budget is presented for formal adoption at the 9 June 2025 regular City Council meeting.

“Recommendation: Approval of the Ordinance”

So while a consensus may have been reached following the budget work sessions and a public hearing, a vote specifically to formally adopt the budget did not occur at the Monday meeting.

Otherwise, another roll call vote was taken following Council Member Tami Walker’s motion to reinstate Michael Venable as mayor pro tem. That motion failed in a 5-3 vote, which means that Council Member Garry Daeke remains mayor pro tem. Council Members Sara Coffey, Lamont Noel, Sam Seifert, Ola Thorpe-Cooper and Daeke voted against the motion; Council Members Geraldine Champion, Tami Walker and Venable voted yes.

Council Member Noel brought up for discussion hiring an independent legal counsel for the purpose of reviewing recent city employee surveys and complaints that have surfaced as a result of the surveys.

Following some discussion, Council Member Seifert made a motion, seconded by Daeke, to approve hiring the firm, which will be tasked with conducting a complete review of the information contained in the surveys to render an independent and unbiased report on the findings. The motion was approved in a 5-3 vote, with Coffey, Noel, Seifert, Daeke and Thorpe-Cooper voting yes and Walker, Venable and Champion voting no.

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Mayor Pro Tem Remains Topic Of Conversation For Henderson City Council

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It is possible that the Henderson City Council will decide once again on who should be the mayor pro tem, a role that Council Member Garry Daeke had held since December 2023 until he was unseated in February 2025 and replaced with Council Member Michael Venable.

During the Council’s regular May meeting, however, Council Member Lamont Noel asserted that the February action was procedurally incorrect and set in motion a recommendation that later became a motion to return Daeke to the pro tem role. That motion was seconded and passed.

Then, at what was advertised to be a budget public hearing on Thursday, May 22, Council members picked up the issue yet again – this time with some clarification from the city attorney about proper procedures and following policy.

Noel acknowledged during the Thursday meeting that he’d mistakenly cited a policy that applies only to a special called meeting, not a regularly scheduled meeting, about the requirement that all Council members be present in order to add an item to the agenda.

In fact, agenda items may be added during any regular meeting and it’s done routinely. Although three Council members were absent in February, among them Daeke, a quorum was present and that is all that’s needed to hold a meeting or to add agenda items.

An agenda item may be added at a special called meeting only if all members are present.

As City Manager/City Attorney Hassan T. Kingsberry explained to Council members, he consulted with the School of Government to try to get a handle on this tangled-up issue.

“If you decide to revote, that is fine,” Kingsberry said. But it’ll have to wait until a regularly scheduled monthly meeting.

The budget public hearing, which did take place following about 25 minutes about the mayor pro tem topic and a closed session called for during the meeting, is NOT a regular monthly meeting and Council Member Sara Coffey was not present.

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City Holds Budget Public Hearing Thursday, May 22 At 6 PM

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The Henderson City Council continues its budget discussions with a public hearing on Thursday, May 22 at 6 p.m. The meeting will take place at City Hall in the City Council Chambers, 134 Rose Ave. The City Council is scheduled to go into closed session at 5 p.m. for an attorney-client privilege matter.

The public is invited to attend, submit written comments and/or address the Council with questions or other comments about the budget during the public hearing.

According to City Clerk Tracey Kimbrell, one item will be added to the agenda: A budget amendment to transfer funds from Fund Balance to cover security expenses related to the recent cyberattack.

The budget hearing is open to the public and also will be streamed live on YouTube.

The Council held its first two budget work sessions on Monday and Tuesday of this

Finance Director Joey Fuqua proposed a $54 million budget to the City Council on May 12. The budget must be approved and adopted before July 1.

 

TownTalk: Henderson City Council Meeting Budget Presented

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Henderson Finance Director Joey Fuqua presented the FY 2025-26 proposed budget of $54.5 million to the City Council Monday. The balanced budget means that no tax increase will be called for, but the city will have to dip big into its fund balance – to the tune of $4,058,000.

Fuqua called the budget “conservative” and “really challenging,” indicating that he had to deal with a shortfall of about $880,000.

In broad terms, increased salaries that outpace revenues from proposed development are a big reason for the shortfall, and Fuqua said the city implemented savings strategies in January to help as much as possible. The total budget – 54,517,011 – represents a very conservative 1 percent increase over last year’s budget.

Facing a $880,000 shortfall, Fuqua  turned to cost-saving measures in January 2025 to help stem the tide. He also turned to the city’s department heads to look for savings.

“Police and fire collectively were able to come up with $300,000 in savings within their budget,” Fuqua told WIZS Monday. The rest of the savings came from across other departments, further chipping away at the shortfall.

Those cost-saving measures and a healthy fund balance are what enabled Fuqua to keep the current tax rate.

Water and sewer rates will be going up, however. Water rates will increase 13.5 percent over the next two years. Sewer rates will rise by 7 percent over the next two years.

Property tax and sales tax are the city’s primary source of revenue. In Fuqua’s presentation to the Council, he said collections are pacing ahead of last year’s total as of April. Tax collections have remained essentially even to 2024 at 97.26 percent.

He said he did question some numbers coming from the county’s tax department, adding that he expected some of those figures to be adjusted in the city’s favor.

Projected increases in the tax base are just that – projections. And Fuqua told Council members several times during his presentation that the city needs to grow – in population to create new taxpayers and in development to increase the tax base.

“We are not being saved by development because we aren’t having development,” he said. Simply put, until the city can afford to pay for services like public safety and more, the tax rate will not be going down.

“.65 is the rate that would be necessary to pay for the salaries that the city has arrived at over a number of recent years,” Fuqua explained to WIZS Monday night after the meeting concluded. “We’re on the hook for those that hit the bottom line…when you factor in those salary levels and all the fringe, .65 is what’s going to pay for it. We don’t have other forms of revenue to supplement what we have to do to make that mark.”

The City Council has scheduled its first budget work session for May 19 at 6 p.m. The new budget must be adopted by July 1, 2025 when the new fiscal year begins.

 

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The Henderson City Council will meet at 6 p.m. on Monday, May 12 for its regular monthly meeting.  Items on the agenda include presentation of the 2025-26 city budget and a discussion of water and sewer rate increases.

Henderson Mayor Melissa Elliott has announced a special called meeting set for 5 p.m. as well, to discuss a personnel matter, according to information from Clerk Tracey Kimbrell. Water and sewer rates have remained the same for six years, and results of a study were presented to Council during a September 2024 work session. The study concluded that a significant adjustment to the water rates was needed, while a less substantial adjustment to the sewer rates was also required. The Council is expected to act on the resolution to increase the rates.

Anyone wishing to address the Council must do so in person or submit questions/comments to the City Clerk by 3 p.m. on the day of the meeting.

Join the Zoom Meeting at the following link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81365676350?pwd=B5woNmYx1X0G0s3VTpBOptHqPWY2eA.1

Originally written and posted on May 12, 2025

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TownTalk: Council Restricts Mayor’s Time At City Hall, Reinstates Daeke As Mayor Pro Tem

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The Henderson City Council voted 6-2 Monday to limit the time Mayor Melissa Elliott can spend at City Hall to no more than two hours twice a week until it can review information contained in recent employee surveys.

It was one of two items added to Monday’s agenda at the request of Council Member Lamont Noel. The other item concerned removing Michael Venable as mayor pro tem and reinstating Garry Daeke.

Daeke, Noel and Council Member Sara Coffey were not present when Venable was voted in as pro tem back in February. The action violates the rule that all members be present to vote on agenda additions.

Coffey made the motion, which Venable seconded. The motion passed 7-1, with Council Member Geraldine Champion voting no.

Coming on the heels of the mayor pro tem vote was Noel’s recommendation to restrict – temporarily – the amount of time that the mayor can spend at City Hall.

Noel told WIZS News Monday night that the move was made “to offer relief based on the complaints that we have received in the employee surveys. The findings were rather alarming,” he said, without going into any details.

Noel continued by saying the Council needs to carefully review and consider the information in the employee surveys to determine next steps. In the meantime, Elliott was to turn in her key fob and limit her time to no more than two hours a day, twice a week at City Hall.

Council Member Sam Seifert made a motion to accept Noel’s recommendation. Council Member Daeke seconded the motion and it passed 6-2. Voting no were Council members Champion and Venable.

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Council To Review Dual Role Of Manager/Attorney

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The Henderson City Council voted 7-1 Monday to review in nine months the dual roles of city manager and city attorney, the current position of Hassan T. Kingsberry.

The Council convened a special called meeting for Monday at 3:30 p.m. to go into closed session to discuss a personnel matter.

When the council returned from the closed session, Council Member Lamont Noel made a motion to review the dual role in nine months’ time. Council Member Geraldine Champion cast the lone dissenting vote. All council members were present for the vote.

Voting yes were Council members Noel, Sara Coffey, Sam Seifert, Michael Venable, Garry Daeke, Ola Thorpe-Cooper and Tami Walker.

Kingsberry was sworn in as the city’s attorney on Dec. 10, 2024; he was then chosen to assume the role of city manager after former manager Terrell Blackmon tendered his resignation effective Jan. 10, 2025.

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